Thursday, 29 November 2012

The Passion of Joan of Arc [1928]

The Passion of Joan of Arc, Dreyer’s final silent film, is one of only handful
of films that are de facto members of
the elite group reverently referred to as “essential arthouse classics” – and
like those that have made that qualification, it has been worshipped, beatified
and canonized ad nauseum over the
years. The film began with the epigraph announcing that it was based on
recorded testimonials of Joan’s trials. But, quite obviously, subjective
judgement and artistic liberty were freely employed by Dreyer in his depiction
of her inquisition by a group of judges who consider her a heretic. The
proceedings were memorably dramatized through the use of extreme close-ups,
which unequivocally established the physical suffering and spiritual crises of
Joan on one hand, and the hypocrisy and self-centeredness of the church
tribunal, on the other. The torment that the 19-year old Joan faced at the
hands of the old and morally corrupt cynics is bound to leave an impression on
most viewers, though the religious blindness of the naïve, young girl, and
Dreyer’s refusal to put some sort of leash on the overt religiosity of the
contents, was tad off-putting for me. The film’s orchestral score or the
technical virtuosity of the film, particular the disorienting camerawork,
however, were not just beyond reproach, they were positively great – and not to
forget, Renée Maria Falconetti’s startling and iconic turn, solely through
facial emoting, as the wronged heroine (interestingly, this was her only movie
role). The film was censored upon its release, and then thought destroyed
until, in 1981, its original copy was found at, of all places, a Norwegian
mental institution.

Should Have Been a Pair of Ragged Claws
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March is almost over. And I've lost my claw mojo. I always win this thing. Always. March was was a dreadful month. It'll return. The claw. March, hopefully, ...